Shallow water anchors presently available on the market typically include an objective to lower a rod, usually made from fiber glass, vertically from the stern of the fishing boat into the water, until it reaches the bottom of a body of water, such as a pond, lake, or slow moving river, to hold the boat in position and keep it from drifting away because of pressure from wind, current, or wave action.
One available shallow water anchor comprises a parallelogram design and is powered by a hydraulic cylinder, requiring a hydraulic pressure system, hydraulic fluid, hoses, valves, and other auxiliary equipment.
Another known anchor comprises a permanently upright main structure with an electric power system at its top end, to drive a fiber glass rod vertically out from its bottom to engage to lake bottom. This, while being powered by an electric motor, has the disadvantage of always being at an upright position and eventually getting in the way of the anglers' activity. It is also a disadvantage to have the rod engaging the bottom so very close to the edge of the boat, compared with the above mentioned parallelogram design, which can put bottom engagement points of two rods (when two anchors are used to keep the boat from weather-vaning) at a larger distance from each other, when the two anchors are attached to the transom wall at outward pointing angles.
A third available option is an anchor with a parallelogram beam design like the first described design, but instead a hydraulic cylinder, it uses a linear electric motor between the parallel beams to lower the anchor. This puts the electric linear motor under water when in use, which in itself is not a good idea. Even if an effort is made to seal the water out of any electrical components, it is at least questionable if this will hold up in the long run, especially in saltwater; besides, it represents a scary proposition, when it comes to convincing a potential customer, that no water will ever manage to reach any electrical parts during the lifetime of the anchor.